What it does
The Residential (Land Lease) Communities Regulation 2015 is subordinate legislation made under the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 (the Act). Its core function is to translate the Act’s high-level protections and obligations into concrete, enforceable rules that operators, home owners and the Commissioner for Fair Trading can apply on a daily basis.
Clause 3 defines “the Act” as the 2013 statute and incorporates the Interpretation Act 1987. The regulation then addresses five broad operational domains.
First, it authorises selective publication of enforcement and disciplinary information (cl 4). For convictions, the operator’s name, role, offence description, court outcome and penalty may be published on the internet once appeal periods have expired or a final order confirms the conviction (cl 4(2)–(3)). For disciplinary action taken under Division 3 of Part 13 of the Act, the name, grounds and action taken may be published only after review or judicial review rights have lapsed or a final decision upholds the action (cl 4(4)–(5)). Clause 4(6)–(9) impose removal obligations if convictions are quashed, appeals lodged, reviews commenced, or five years have elapsed since first publication. An order under s 10 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 is deemed a conviction (cl 4(10)). Clause 5 separately requires publication of whether a community has a residents committee.
Second, the regulation prescribes mandatory documentation. Clause 6 and Schedule 1 set out the standard form of site agreement that every operator must use. Clause 7 and Schedule 2 prescribe the site condition report that must be completed by both parties before the agreement is signed and annexed to it; a replacement agreement between the same parties for the same site does not require a further report. Clause 8 prohibits specific terms in any site agreement, including indemnities for the operator’s own negligence, compulsory insurance (subject to a narrow voluntary sharing exception tied to capital-gain sharing under s 110(2)(c) of the Act), penalty or liquidated damages clauses, and “no-breach” rebates. Clause 9 adds withdrawal or withholding of services to the statutory definition of retaliatory conduct in s 56(3) of the Act.